[novaleaf]

(My Opinion): This is a business decision. The user is a captive audience (no alternatives available), so Apple has a disincentive to optimize anything other than profit generators.

And it's not just Apple. In Google Play, try housekeeping your app collection, or re-install a specific app on a new device. It's technically possible, but the more apps you have installed in the past, the harder it gets.

[baldfat]

(My Opinion) All of Apple's 40,000 foot view is walled garden. iTunes, DRM Wireless Headphones etc..

[neotek]

What DRM wireless headphones?

[jjawssd]

No more analog-only headphones on the new iPhone. DRM capable digital to analog adapters coming in 3...2...1...

[neotek]

Apple is the company that forced every major label that wanted to have its music on iTunes to abandon DRM, what possible motivation would they have for wanting to bring it back?

[Tinyyy]

It's kinda disingenuous to make wild speculations like that.

[baldfat]

That isn't wild speculations.

All Non-Apple Lighting Cables require a official chip from Apple. So Tim Cook might say that DRM is wild speculation it is actually happening now with all their cables.

So in order to buy a adapter I MUST buy a cable with a chip from Apple that makes it authorized.

EDIT : I guess EFF are wild speculators?

"To its credit, Apple has been adamant it won’t use the new design to restrict your listening experience. But therein lies the problem: you shouldn’t have to depend on a manufacturer’s permission to use its hardware however you like (or, for that matter, to build your own peripherals and accessories for it)."

Currently "it’s impossible to connect a speaker or other audio device to an iPhone without Apple software governing it"

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/analog-last-defense-ag...

[Tinyyy]

Yea, I do think that they are wild speculators. Just because I believe in some of their causes doesn't mean they can do no wrong. I think that they tend to go to more of an extreme than I'm comfortable with. But I think it's understandable because when they fight for freedom and what have you, they face opposition from people and businesses that shapes their opinion of them. This means that they become more partisan and fight against these 'rivals' instead - which is not wrong - but it's too political for me.

[neohaven]

How do you do DRM on analog?

[baldfat]

what analog output is there? It is now removed.

[aseipp]

Your ears don't listen to digital signals or encrypted sound waves (they can't decrypt it). So, how do you go from digital signal on a Lightning cable to actual sound waves for the human ear? They convert the signal, obviously, somewhere along the line. The DAC is in the headphones now, instead (presumably, similar to every other bluetooth headset since forever, I suppose.)

The analog output can never be removed from the chain, so to speak. This is the "analog gap", and also why it's not really sensible or possible to "encrypt" physical audio signals in a manner to prevent people from copying them, when the copying-person is also the intended recipient of the end-result.

[andyzweb]

fMRI + thought-crime enforcement bureaus